Research Matters

Many assessments of the future for the environment are negative, so much so that a report calling for action barely merits attention in the news. Recently, however, the results of an international workshop in Oxford had global press coverage. What the report conveyed was a sense of ocean experts coming together from across the globe to share experiences and yet all having the same message: things are as bad as the ’worst-case’ scenario and many of the individual impacts, like climate change and overfishing, are acting together to produce even more negative outcomes.
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On Friday 23rd September 2011 Ireland will host ’Sea2Sky’ - its first ever European Researchers Night - in Salthill, Galway. This one day celebration of science in inner and outer space, is being organised by NUI Galway in collaboration with the Marine Institute and Galway Atlantaquaria and is funded under the European Union’s Marie Curie Programme and Discover Science & Engineering.On Friday 23rd September 2011 Ireland will host ’Sea2Sky’ - its first ever European Researchers Night - in Salthill, Galway. This one day celebration ....
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Ann Lyons and Lorraine McIlrath of CKI, on behalf of Campus Engage, published the first national survey giving the higher education sector an opportunity to take a ’snapshot' of civic engagement activities across Ireland. The survey shows that considerable progress has been made in Ireland to develop civic engagement, albeit with few resources and uneven manifestations of strategic vision. It also demonstrates that it is both urgent and opportune to engage in a dialogue about how to effectively embed civic engagement in higher education in Ireland.
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Various diseases and injuries can cause our bones to fracture, and in many cases these fractures do not repair or cause severe pain and immobility. Tissue engineering strategies can exploit the capacity for biological cells to produce new tissues in the laboratory under conditions that aim to recreate the body’s biochemical and physical environment. Such strategies have been successful for regenerating skin and cartilage tissue as clinical treatments, but approaches for recreating bone are not yet successful.
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An Taoiseach, Enda Kenny TD, officially opened the new Engineering Building recently. The largest School of Engineering & Informatics in the country at 14,200 square metres, it houses 110 staff and approximately 1,100 students. The building is equipped with the latest facilities, providing a working example for engineering students to study. An Taoiseach, Enda Kenny TD, officially opened the new Engineering Building recently. The largest School of Engineering & Informatics in the country at 14,200 square metres ....
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Alice Jacqueline Perry (1885-1969) graduated with a first class honours degree in Civil Engineering from Queen's College Galway (now NUI, Galway) in 1906. It is understood that she is the first woman to graduate with a degree in engineering in Ireland or Great Britain. Indeed it is possible that she is the first woman to graduate as an engineer anywhere in the world.
Perry was born in Galway in 1885 and came from a family with strong engineering traditions. Her father, James Perry ….
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DREAM, Disability Rights Expanding Accessible Markets is a new Europe-wide network aimed at creating the next generation of disability policy entrepreneurs at European level and to generate research that helps the process of implementation of the disability treaty.  The network is being led by the Centre for Disability Law & Policy which was recently awarded a grant of €3.7 million over 3 years to the Marie Curie network of 14 PhDs working on various aspects of the new UN disability treaty.
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We talk about the weather incessantly, yet we seldom consider how short-term and longterm changes in weather conditions affect our wildlife. The astounding migration of painted lady butterflies reveals the influence of weather on wildlife. In 2009, Galwegians were astounded by the arrival of hundreds of painted lady butterflies to their gardens from Morocco. The record migration was caused firstly by heavy rainfall which resulted in plenty of food for the caterpillars, and the timing of the epic journey ….
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NUI Galway is the first university in Ireland to offer postgraduate students the opportunity to apply their discipline-specific knowledge and skills to the design, conduct and reporting of a community-engaged research project. From September 2011, PhD students will have the option of working in small teams to address the research needs of voluntary or community organisations, as a credit-bearing module in a postgraduate research programme.
This module is one of the outcomes of the Community-Engaged Research in Action project ....
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In the midst of economic and financial gloom a positive message is emerging from the west of Ireland. “What people want is authenticity; they want a product with a story, with a culture, something that is unique to them – the past was mass production, the future is bespoke, the future is creative”, the words of a representative of the emerging creative economy sector located in the West of Ireland. Ireland and the west are poised to take advantage of the growing international demand for products that are culturally embedded ....
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A comprehensive report entitled Leadership in the Irish Civil Service: A 360° Review of Senior Management Capability has shown that “senior leaders are currently managing and leading without the authority, or indeed adequate control mechanisms, to effect real change”, as summarised by President James Browne recently. The project was a multi-level investigation of the nature and impact of human resource management practices on the Irish public sector and was led by Dr. Alma McCarthy of the J.E. Cairnes, School of Business & Economics.
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NUI Galway hosted an international European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) practical course, “MicroRNA-profiling from in-situ hybridization to next-generation sequencing” in May this year.
MicroRNAs are a class of newly discovered molecules within our cells that control the activity of genes.  The regulation and function of microRNAs is still poorly understood, but they are required for the normal functioning of our bodies ....
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Some of the most interesting research going on in NUI Galway is literally in your gardens and on your plate. Dr Zoë Popper, a lecturer in Botany and Plant Science in the School of Natural Sciences, NUI Galway has edited a book entitled The Plant Cell Wall: Methods and Protocols. This book focuses on methods of research currently used to analyse cell walls; an area of research which has importance for food, fuel and fibre as well as being of interest because it controls how plants grow and how they interact with the environment.
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SEEN, NUI Galway’s student enterprise support service, has launched a hot-desk facility for the summer of 2011.  SEEN provides NUI Galway students who want to progress their business ideas the benefit of networking with like-minded students and on-campus support and resources.
The hot-desk facility was managed by the Technology Transfer Office (TTO) and SEEN.  SEEN is a student run network which encourages entrepreneurship among the student populace. Since January 2011, SEEN has worked with students ....
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Providing students with the knowledge and skills to pursue their field of choice is central to the university’s mission. Every so often however, programmes come along that enable students to put their training to use in ways that benefit communities. Such opportunities enhance the student’s skill set, but also provide a vital opportunity to see the impact of one’s degree firsthand. ’Engineering for Humanity’ is just such a programme. A joint initiative between NUI Galway, Alan Kerins Projects and Foundation Nepal ….
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The Royal Irish Academy has elected three of NUI Galway’s top academics for admission in recognition of their academic achievement. NUI Galway’s Professor Peter McHugh, Professor Colin O’Dowd and Professor Donal O’Regan were among twenty-three scholars who joined the ranks of Ernest Walton, Erwin Schrödinger, Seamus Heaney and Mary Robinson by becoming Members of the Royal Irish Academy.
Dr Shane Darcy, a lecturer at the Irish Centre for Human Rights ….
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The University recently marked the occasion of the 1000th item deposited in ARAN, the University’s open access repository of peer-reviewed and scholarly literature. An article co-authored by David Collings and Hugh Scullion with Michael Morley (UL) which was published in the Journal of World Business in 2007, ’Changing patterns of global staffing in the multinational enterprise’ happens to be the most heavily downloaded journal article in ARAN.  It has been downloaded 1225 times since January….
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Camara Education is a volunteer organisation dedicated to using technology to deliver education more effectively to disadvantaged communities in Africa, Jamaica and Ireland. The charity has just sent out its 25,000th computer. Deirdre Lee, a research associate at DERI, is the Camara NUI Galway Society coordinator. Along with many other local volunteers, she gives her time to ensure the successful collection and redistribution of donated computers to e-Learning Centres in Africa, Jamaica and Ireland….
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SESE 2011 gave 42 senior secondary school students the opportunity to engage in a range of activities with scientists at NUIG. Students from 15 counties, including winners of the BT Young Scientist Exhibition, performed laboratory experiments, saw research in progress through tours of research laboratories, talked with NUIG graduates about careers in Biology, Chemistry, Maths and Physics and heard about the latest research discoveries at NUI, Galway. As one participant said, "SESE changed my opinion on career opportunities ….
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